


The Middle Woman

by Kayylala



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Fluff, Jason Todd cares, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, Steph is amazing, Tim Drake Needs Help
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2021-01-26 22:06:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21381340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kayylala/pseuds/Kayylala
Summary: Steph finds out that Jason and Tim are Soulmates- only she can't tell them because of a few unfortunate promises.But if she can't straight out tell them, then she'll make them tell each other.By making them fall in love.
Relationships: Stephanie Brown & Jason Todd, Stephanie Brown & Tim Drake, Tim Drake/Jason Todd
Comments: 17
Kudos: 515





	The Middle Woman

**Author's Note:**

> Please enjoy this li'l Soulmate AU :)
> 
> UPDATE: Hey folks, just a few minor changes to make the tenses consistent (I can't believe I posted it like that before) and to improve the flow a bit. Ngl, altering a handful of paragraphs makes me feel a lot better about this one. Still not perfect, obviously, but much less frustrating for you to read. Hopefully.

_If she can't straight out tell them, then she'll make them tell each other. By making them fall in love._

Being Tim Drake's best friend was no easy task and in moments like these, Steph doesn't think she's ever given enough credit for the way she manages this kid.

He is currently sleep deprived and hysterical. She got a call from him an hour ago and came as quickly as she could. Upon entering his apartment, she finds case notes littering every possible surface and Tim sitting in the middle of it, hunched over a piece of paper and muttering to himself.

"Tim, what the hell are you doing?" she asks when he doesn't notice her arrival.

At the sound of her voice, he turns around, dark circles shadowing his eyes. "Working," is all he says before continuing with his muttering.

"Have you sleep recently?"

"Oh, of course not."

Well, it was too much to hope for anyway. Tim's standard of self-care has improved since he initially moved out of the manor, but every now and then, there'll be something that sets him off on an obsessive path of determination and self-destruction.

Steph blames his incredibly infuriating need to know _everything_.

For the time being, she leaves him where he is and goes to inspect the rest of the house only to find it in a similar state to the room in she entered. The bedroom is a mess, clothes and paper everywhere, the dining room containing nothing but dozens of coffee cups and a lone Chinese take-out box. The kitchen seems to be the only clean room in the house and Steph guesses that’s mostly likely due to it's disuse since the coffee machine migrated to the study.

Back in the sitting room, Tim has moved to pacing the length of the room, apparently not bothered to tread all over the paper littering the floor.

"Can you stop that for a sec?" she asks after he once more fails to notice her presence. "What's got you so worked up?"

"I'm not Robin."

Steph pause because _what_? "Tim, what on earth are you talking about? You haven't been Robin for over a year."

Tim looks at her, exasperated, like she is the one not making sense. "I know, but that's what they said to me."

Her confusion continues to grow. "Tim, I've heard dozens of crooks say that to you. Hell, I think _I_ might have ever said that to you at some point, which I have apologised for, by the way."

"That's the point!" he yells, hands thrown into the air. "How am I supposed to know?"

"What are you talking about?" Steph says again, starting to question why she thought conversation with him right now was a good idea.

"How am I supposed to know which person it was?"

All right, this is starting to get ridiculous. Time to change tactics. "_Who_ are you talking about?" she said, putting special emphasis on the first word.

"My Soulmate!" Tim cries and flops himself to lay amongst the wrinkled paper and Steph's attention is only now drawn to what the notes are actually on.

She can distinctly see case files, GCPD ones and Tim's own, lying on the bottom layer but above those are print outs containing information about Soulmates; who they are, what they are and how to find them.

"You're Soulmate said that to you?" she asks and a sinking feeling begins to fill her stomach. Steph hasn't met her Soulmate yet but the words on her left wrist have always been a comfort to her. As were the loving one's on her right.

Soulmates were a complicated business. Steph hasn't known Tim to care about them much and maybe he doesn't really. In recollection, she can't actually remember him every mentioning them at all. Something probably triggered him into all this research he has conducted over the last few days. The first words his Soulmate ever said to him were something about him not being Robin so it is no wonder Soulmates aren't Tim's favourite topic of conversation.

The thought makes Steph sick. How horrible it must be, to have something like that tattooed onto your wrist, as if it wasn't bad enough to have people say it to on a regular basis. A lie constantly repeated, saying you aren't good enough.

No wonder Tim believes it so easily.

Idly, she wonders if he has any words printed on his right wrist, whether his Soulmate will ever fall in love with him. God, she hopes he does and they're better than his left.

As if reading her mind, Tim continues, "And they think I'm _insane_ Steph." he begins to unbutton his cuffs and roll up his sleeves, then pulls hastily at the knots of the bracelets around both wrists. "Look."

Steph finds herself staring at Tim's wrist regardless of not wanting to. She feels invasive and intrusive but can't look away from the lettering and the simple sentences they make.

'You're not Robin'

'You know you're insane'

The words are not that great, Steph will admit, but before she has more than a second thought about it, Tim begins wailing again. 

"I don't know what to do. Whoever they are they obviously don't like me and that's okay but I just want to know!"

"Tim." Steph steps forward. "Whoever they are, they obviously can't think you're that bad. The words on you right wrist prove that. I think you're just tired."

Tim seems to deflate at her words. His shoulders sink and the hysteric edge he's been carrying falls away, leaving him swaying on his feet. "You're right. What day is it even?"

"Thursday night. Why? How long have you been awake?"

Tim looks away sheepishly. "Since Monday?"

Steph sends him the hardest, most vicious glare she can muster. "Go to bed right now, Mister."

"Promise me you won't tell anyone."

"Fine, I promise. Now get to bed!"

Tim goes without further complaint.

XXXXXXXX

A week later and Steph thinks she might just give up on having friends at all.

She is sitting on a rooftop with Jason, both clad in their armour and eating hot dogs from one of those late night vendors, when Jason, the dumbass, pulls off his left glove to eat and reveals his words-

'I know I'm not.'

-to her as visible as day.

Jason flusters over them in half-hearted attempts to hide them despite knowing it is pointlessness as she's already seen them. He looks at her for a good minute, waiting for her to respond but Steph feels as though words had failed her. They seem to fit very nicely with someone's she's seen very recently.

And if that font doesn't represent Tim's sad resignation, then she'll been damned.

"Can I see you're other wrist?" She asks before she can stop herself.

Jason looks at her through his domino in pure disbelief. It isn't the type of thing people usually just _ask_ about.

"If you show me yours too."

For whatever reason Steph agrees. It is strange situation. Her and Jason haven't really been friends that long and the things they talk about are far from personal. Steph hasn't even shown her words to Tim before, and yet here she is, with Jason of all people.

Slowly, she pulls her gloves off as Jason removes his other, their hot dogs now long forgotten.

Steph's left isn't very informative. It's quite standard but she feels conflicted about Jason seeing her right. That isn't _overly_ personal either but it's _hers_.

But fair's fair.

Steph holds out her arms for Jason to look at, her word reading;

'Nice to finally meet you'

'Purple _is_ pretty cool'

Jason looks for a moment longer than Steph anticipated he would, seeming genuinely interested in what is written on her wrist, then holds out his own right.

'Like your dumb arse can talk'

Steph almost feels guilty about laughing. Not just at the words, but they're written in _comic sans_! It's so Tim it hurts. She goes to say to Jason that he should have a chat with a certain someone with matching wrists before remembering her promise to him and to make matter worst Jason began slipping his glove back on, saying,

"If you don’t say anything, then neither will I."

Dread begins to fill every bone in her body because _Jason and Tim_ are apparently _Soulmates_ and she can't say anything to either of them.

Well, she _could_. But if she's wrong and they aren't… That could cause some issues and even more trust barriers she doesn't want to think about.

What has she gotten herself into?

XXXXXXXX

Tim and Jason are Soulmates and Steph is going to make them fall in love with each other if it's the last thing she does and she is going to be there when they say those words to each other. So much she has resolved. How she is going to manage it is yet to be determined.

Steph decides to start with small things. All three of them are going to go out for lunch. Not a street dinner in masks, but an actual, proper lunch in actual, proper clothes at an actual, proper restaurant.

It goes surprisingly well. There are a few awkward stages where Tim and Jason don't talk, they aren't the best of friends and Steph realistically could not have hoped for a better outcome. Despite a few arguments, nothing escalates into a brawl or gunfight and they say goodbye to each other politely when Jason leaves them at Tim's apartment.

But apparently she wasn't as subtle as she hoped, because as soon as Jason is out of earshot, Tim turns to her. "So are you going to tell me what that was all about?"

"What do you mean?" she says, shrugging. "We just had lunch is all."

"I know you and you're plotting something, Steph. Don’t' deny it."

She simply shrugs again. "Well you and Jason are both my friends and I thought that if the two of you put the past aside, you'd actually be good friends too."

"He tried to kill me, Steph," Tim says, face dropping. "Several times. Sure, we can get along but I don't think we'll every be 'friends'."

"Sure you can," she beams at him as she picks up her keys off his much-cleaner-than-last-week bench top. "Just give him a chance, all right?"

She doesn't wait for an answer before slipping out of the door and out onto the street.

XXXXXXXX

Steph's starting to get frustrated. Tim is being more stubborn and Jason more socially inept than she had planned for.

They go for dozens of day trips over the next few months, but Tim refuses to be anything more than politely civil and Jason acts like he's an awkward third wheel the whole time. It is driving her crazy. So she decides she needs to step up her game. 

She has organised to meet the both of them at a small café in central Gotham but doesn't have the slightest plans of turning up herself. For a while anyway.

10 minutes after she is supposed to be there, she sends Tim a text saying she is stuck in traffic and going to be late. 10 minutes after that, she sends him another saying she was about 5 minutes away and to order her a vanilla latte.

From a corner booth, she watches as Jason offers to go and order it for him. _What a gentleman_ she thinks.

They aren't talking very much, both just sitting there drinking their respective drinks and commenting on mediocre things like the weather and making fun of what that guy over there is wearing. It is a little disappointing. Does she really have to do everything around here?

She sends one more text stating that traffic has come to a total stand still and any hope of her getting there in under half an hour is gone. She makes sure to include a threat stating that if they don't wait for her she'll whip both their arses and maybe Tim should tell Jason about that interesting case he worked a few weeks ago.

Delighted, she then proceeds to watch Tim get really excited in his recall of the Copy Cat Riddler he dealt with earlier that month. Jason even laughs several times.

When the story is coming to an end, Steph decides that she shouldn't push her luck and gets up from her own table, walks out the back door, then re-enters through the front, looking positively angry about the traffic she was just sitting in.

"Sorry guys," she says, sitting down in a huff pretending to look around for the drink she knew Tim consumes 20 minutes ago. "Where's my latte?"

XXXXXXXX

Steph knows that Tim knows she knows he knows that she is up to something. She probably lost any subtly points after the first 4 times of getting stuck in traffic. But lucky for her she isn't trying to be subtle.

"I want to know what your up to," he demands after yet another outing she had missed the first hour of.

"I'm up to absolutely nothing whatsoever," she says but the wicked grin that she fails to control ruins any sense of innocence she might wish to portray.

Tim narrows his eyes in a very Bat-like stare. "Why are you so keen on me and Jason becoming friends?"

"Because I'm a woman of my word and I don't break promises even if doing so would make my life like, a bajillion times easier. And is it working, by the way?"

Tim considers her for a moment. Of course, being Mister Stubborn, his first instinct will to say no, but Steph can see that isn't true. It _is _working. She has seen them interact and it's obvious he is actually starting to like Jason. Even if it is just a bit.

But she knows he won't admit to her being right.

"That's beside the point. You're up to something and I'm going to get to the bottom of it."

"Well good luck with that. Especially now that it's tax time. You're going to be very busy at work these next few weeks won't you?" Tim's glare intensifies. "Ah well. What a shame. I guess I'll just have to see you next time."

She flicks her hair over her shoulder and still bears that wicked grin as she leaves Tim in deep, conniving thought.

XXXXXXXX

"What are you hiding from me?"

Jason traps Steph out in the parking lot after Tim leaves on his bike.

He's pretending to be angry but Steph certainly didn't miss the way Jason eyed the leather jacket and boots Tim was wearing. She can't blame him, Tim _does _look good like that.

"I don't know what you mean?" she finds it much easier to keep a straight face this time around. She isn't going to give away any of her plans tonight.

"Why do you keep inviting me and Tim places and then failing to turn up on time?"

Steph shrugs. "I keep telling you, I have the worst luck with traffic. Tonight there was that back up from the highway of people leaving town for the weekend. And there was that time I just forgot- don't look at me like that, it happens to the best of us. You're both my friends and is it a crime that a busy woman like myself wants to spend time with more than one friends at once?"

Jason doesn't look convinced and for a second Steph worries that he's actually figured it out. If he has, he doesn't let on. She is actually starting to think that Tim is growing on Jason. The looks he was sending that guy staring at Tim all night were quite ugly and Steph is 99% positive that he followed him into the bathroom at some point during the night. She doesn't really want to know what happened in there. Definitely nothing nice.

But it is also noticeable how the next time they meet, Tim somehow finds a reason to be wearing leather and Jason is a lot more open to conversation than usual.

All is going to plan.

XXXXXXXX

Steph has been planning to get them together for a big case that will undoubtedly take weeks to solve at some point. She was waiting for one that wasn't cut and dry to hand off to Tim, then leave town for a month because she knows he won't call Dick and he certainly won't ask for Bruce's help. So he'd be left with no option other than Jason.

But Tim beats her to it. And she does happen to be out of town, working her own case with Cass.

"Steph, God, I've been calling you for hours. I've worked out this things but I can't understand this other thing but I've got to go watch this guy and I can't try to figure out the trajectory of the shooter while I'm running around on the roofs of Gotham and I really gotta fix my coffee machine because I broke it but I don't know how because I'm trying to fix my screen that I accidently smashed but it wasn't an accident because I threw the laptop but I didn't mean it and now I got glass in my foot and the biannual Wayne report in due in three days which also means there's going to be some sort of event soon so I have to get a hair cut because it's been so long since I have but I like having it long you know but I suppose I need to remember that time Penguin ripped half of it out and that really hurt a lot, which reminds me, he's planning a weapons buy next week but I haven't been able to figure out when and-"

"Okay, Tim, shut up for a second. I'm in Hong Kong with Cass, remember. I left three days ago and I know I definitely told you that. I can't help you so you need to call someone else."

Over the phone, Steph hears muffled curses about something to do with a bleeding foot.

"Who should I call then? I sure as hell am not going to contact Bruce right now."

"Get Jason to help you," Steph says and is very glad that Tim can't see her overly large grin.

On the other side of the phone, the only sign that Tim is still there is his deep breathing. "I don't have a choice do I? But does Jason know how to work out the trajectory of a shooter or how to fix my coffee machine or help me fix my screen or what goes in a biannual report or how to do that things that I can't understand? Maybe he does because he used to kill people and this guy that I'm supposed to follow is a murderer and he can find something I missed or maybe he just knows but I've been working on this since Wednesday night and I haven't come up with anything except an approximate location but do you think Jason will know that stuff?" Tim doesn't leave time for Steph to answer the question before answering it himself. "Yes. Yes, I think he will. I'm going to call Jason. Thanks Steph."

"Tim, hold on a moment," she says before he hangs up. "Have you been up since Wednesday night? Because it's what, Friday evening now?"

"Is it really Friday? Well I guess so because I can't remember going to sleep. And I feel like that's something I'd remember."

Steph sighs. Poor Jason. She knows that Tim is very difficult to manage when he gets like this. She'll have to give him a heads up. "If I thought I could convince you to go to bed I would bother but I feel like I should at least mention that you should definitely get some sleep. Call Jason in the morning when you wake up. Okay?"

"Okay. Bye, Steph."

As soon as the line is ended, Steph dials Jason's number. She knows very well Tim has no plans on actually sleeping tonight.

He answers on the second ring. "Sup, Steph. I thought you were in Hong Kong."

"Oh I am," she says. "But I just got a call from Tim and he needs help on a case. He said he'd call you but I wanted to give you a heads up that he can be a bit problematic."

"I've worked with him on case before. He's not that bad."

"You've never had to deal with this, though. Every few months he'll do it and he got this case on Wednesday so he wouldn't have slept since at least Tuesday night. Maybe not since Monday. I really can't judge at this point but he's a bit crazy. And by a bit, I mean a lot."

"So I'll put him to bed and we'll start on it in the morning. I'm sure he's not that bad," he sounds positively way too calm to realise what he is getting himself into.

Steph's laugh should probably make him very nervous. "That'll work in theory. If you manage to get him to sleep while on a case high, you better tell me how you did it. Anyway, it's five in the morning here so I'm going back to sleep. Good luck."

XXXXXXXX

As Steph hangs up, Jason has a weird feeling that he might come to regret agreeing to this.

He waits for Tim to call to tell him which apartment to come to and makes his way there as quick as he can.

Truth be told, he is actually a little concerned. Four days is a long time to go without sleep and according to science, it's likely that Tim started hallucinating 24 hours ago. Which, needless to say, is very dangerous for someone in their line of work.

He knocks on the window and enters the mess of the apartment. Tim has stuff everywhere, from case files in the sink to a mouldy apple sitting in the dead centre of his living room floor. So far Tim hasn't said anything to him yet, he is crouched on the arm of the sofa lining up a red string which has one end taped to the apple and the other is being held very close to his eyes.

Jason raises an eyebrow and asks he on earth he is doing.

"The bullet would have had to have come from the 56th floor of a building because if the victim was on the 32nd floor, and the bullet entered the angle it did, then the hypotenuse angle meant that he was about 60 metres above if the adjacent was 110 metres which is the only sum that fits with the surrounding buildings but the only room with a view on that floor was a bathroom window and those doors are time locked so no one could have possibly been in there but maybe…" he trails off and dashes into the next room and Jason follows, stunned.

In the study, Tim is now standing on top of two chairs stacked on each other to reach the top of a giant map he had pinned against his wall. He is in the process of tacking more red string to the map when he stops abruptly.

"Oh, I just remembered." And he jumps off the chairs to sit down crossed legged on the floor a few metres from Jason and begins wiring a laptop screen.

Jason is very confused. Which is an understatement. "What are you doing now?"

"I threw it before but it was an accident so now I'm fixing so I can search Bruce's database. Do you know how to fix a coffee machine?"

"A what?"

"A coffee machine. Mines broken and if you do it, it's one less thing for me. Do you know how?"

But before he can answer, Tim has gotten up off the floor and walks over to the bedroom, only to return carrying a smoking coffee machine. "I think I burnt some of the beans," he says as he put it on top of a stack of WE files. "Well, I'm going to go follow this guys around for the rest of the night. But first, do you know how these people were killed?"

Crime scene photos are shoved into Jason's hands that Tim picked up from somewhere under the piles of paper on the desk. Jason is very impressed that he knew exactly where they were amongst the mess. Briefly, he looks over the photos and is about to tell Tim that he probably should not be going anywhere while so delirious but he is gone from sight by the time Jason looks up.

"Where the hell…" he mutters, looking around, stunned at the vanishing act. Quickly, he moves to the room he entered from and gets there just in time to see Tim jumping onto the window sill. "Tim! Hey, wait."

Tim pauses, thankfully to look back. "I've got to see where my guy's going."

"I think that can probably wait till tomorrow when you've had some sleep."

"And I think you're probably right but I don't have time. I gotta go now."

He moves to leap out the window and Jason reacts on instincts, moving forward to wrap an arm around his waist and pull him back into the room.

"Hey!" he cries in protest. "What are you doing?"

"Saving your life, that's what. Are you crazy? If you go out there in your current state you're going to fall off a roof or something and die. Christ, Steph was right. You are mad."

Tim doesn't grace that with a response and moves back into the study. "You're right. You're right,' he mutters. "Well, if I'm not allowed out there, I'm going to keep working in here. Are you going to help or not?"

Jason watches as Tim stands in the doorway and stares down at the broken laptop as though it will magically fix itself if he looks at it hard enough, before he turns his gaze to the crime scene pictures like he'll suddenly realise what the murder weapon was if he looks at them long enough. Finally, he takes three steps backwards, walks into the living room containing the apple, goes around the room, deliberately picking out certain pieces of paper and then returns to the study to sit at his desk and began typing on the computer there.

"All right, what are you doing now?"

"The biannual Wayne Enterprise report. Though, I'm also contemplating if I should get a hair cut?"

"What?" Jason gapes, because _what_?

"You never answered before. Do you think you can fix the coffee machine?"

Right then Jason comes to a decision that this has gone on long enough. Steph was right. Tim is a lot bit crazy when he gets like this and he needs sleep. Right now.

"Tim, I will not help you fix the coffee machine until you get some sleep."

Jason is pretty sure Tim _growls_ at him. "I can't sleep until I've solved this, Jason. There's a guy out there killing people so I need to figure this out as quickly as I can."

"Oh yeah? And how, exactly, will doing the Wayne report right now help you with that?"

Tim looks down at the screen and stares at it for a good minute straight before turning back to Jason. "I need to get this done too. I've got so much to do. So much."

Jason's stomach clenches at Tim's voice. It has lost its over-eager edge to it and now he just sounds sad, and by the look of it, the poor kid _does_ have a tonne of work to complete. "Look, Tim, it'll be all easier if you can actually think straight. You need to rest."

"But I've calculated it all out. This report will take me 17 hours. Following that guy will take 6 hours. Working out that trajectory properly and collecting evidence from the place of the shooting will take 4, from there, the rest of the case will take a combined 28 hours plus the arrest time, which will be another 2 hours. But I need to add another 5 hours onto that for time to fix my laptop that I broke. That's 62 hours worth of stuff that needs doing and I have a 60 hours time frame because this all needs to be done by Monday morning. I have negative 2 time for sleep."

"Well," Jason begins because he really doesn't know what to say. "What if I help? Then things will be much quicker and you can still sleep tonight because you really need to."

"I'll have to calculate again-" Tim starts but Jason cuts him off.

"Just go to bed, Tim." Tim opens his mouth to object, so Jason says, "Please?"

And that does it. For whatever reason Tim hangs his head and rises to his feet. All the eccentric energy he had before is miraculously gone and he looks like he is about to fall over with every step, so Jason guides him to bed, pulls off the domino he had managed to slip on earlier, takes off the bandoliers and cape, removes his gloves and slips off his boots, only to see a blood stained sock.

Jason curses under his breath at the giant cut across Tim's heel. "Are you actually kidding me, Tim? You are _beyond_ ridiculous. Look, just lie down and I'll clean this up for you."

Jason goes into the bathroom for Tim's first aid kit and by the time he comes back, Tim is already asleep.

XXXXXXXX

Steph is disappointed to hear that the pair of them managed to solve the case over just one weekend, but is glad to hear that they evidently make a good team.

Jason sounds exhausted over the phone though. "I'm very sorry for doubting you, Steph. Remind me to let you deal with sleep-deprived Tim from now on."

Steph giggles at that because _no way_ will she ever accept that responsibility ever again. "Absolutely not. This is your job now, Jason. You're clearly very good at it. Did you manage to get him to eat anything?"

"Just dinner, he went and got lunch on his own."

"Oh Jay," Steph says in fake exasperation. "He lied to you. He used your innocence against you because I can tell you he certainly did not go get his own lunch or breakfast and would not have eaten unless you gave it to him directly and stood there and watched him until it was gone."

"Are you telling me that he wouldn't have eaten anything between dinners? At all?"

"Definitely not. He lives off coffee and marshmallows and if you look in his cupboards that is all you'll ever find unless you put something else there yourself."

Jason curses and Steph can hear his keys jangling and there's a momentarily static where Jason must transfer the call to his comm. He doesn't say anything as she hears a door slam shut and an ignition turning on.

"Are you going somewhere?" she asks and not even the phone can provide cover enough to hide her smile. Her glee undoubtedly echoes through her voice and Jason will definitely be picking up on it.

"I'm going to take that little bastard out for lunch."

XXXXXXXX

"Oh young man you have some explaining to do."

Tim lets out an indignant squeak from his seat on the couch. Today is one of the rare days he allows himself to do nothing but binge watch shows he otherwise never has to time to watch.

"Shit, Jason. What are you doing!"

Tim vaults himself over the back of the couch after Jason shows no sigh of slowing down in his approach but it isn't enough to keep himself out of Jason's clutches.

In a few large strides, Jason has Tim thrown over his shoulder, kicking, punching and, dignity be damned, biting.

"We are going to get lunch and I swear to God I will force feed you if I have to. Now that I'm carrying you, you can't be more than 130 pounds and for someone with as much muscle as you, that is far too little."

"Excuse you," Tim says, falling limp over Jason's shoulder. "I'll have you know I'm only slightly below average weight for my height."

Jason scoffs but otherwise doesn't reply. Tim sighs and resigns himself to Jason mother-henning

XXXXXXXX

Steph messages Barbra as soon as she gets off the phone from Jason and has her track him and Tim to wherever they are eating and send her the café security footage. Sure, Steph probably has more important things to be doing at 1 o'clock in the morning, like getting ready for her stakeout, but she is so invested in this relationship now it is bordering on insanity.

She watches as Jason all but drags Tim into the booth and then she watches Tim face plant onto the table while Jason kicks him in the shins.

And, bless Babs' soul, she has the perfect audio commentary on the whole thing. How even Oracle managed that is beyond Steph but she is grateful nevertheless.

"I can not believe you had the audacity to lie to me like that."

"I can't believe you were naïve enough to believe me," Tim mutters, still face down on the table

"Well I sure as hell won't be making that mistake again. Have you ever eaten since Monday night?"

Tim's shoulders move in what was probably intended to be a shrugging motion. "Well I ate a packet of marshmallows at work yesterday, so yes."

"Marshmallows are _not_ food, Tim!"

Steph can't help the uncontrollable laughed that brings Cass into the room.

"What's funny?" she asks unfazed at Steph's lack of preparation.

Between giggles, Steph manages to squeak out the words 'Jason' and 'Tim' and hands Cass the tablet she is watching on.

"I don't care about whatever definition you have on food, marshmallows and coffee alone _don't qualify_! God, how are you even alive?" Jason is yelling and attracting a lot of attention from other customers.

"Can you tone it down a bit please?" Tim whispers, as though his quiet will compensate from Jason's yelling. "Everyone's staring."

"Maybe if you fed yourself-" Jason begins but Tim covers his mouth with his hand.

"Seriously, Jason. It's not a big deal," Tim is starting to look panicked and it brings Steph absolute glee. She never had the power to embarrass him like this and watching Tim gets his just desserts from _Jason_ is amazing.

Through the cameras, Steph and Cass watch Jason stand angrily, stalk over to the terrified girl working at the counter and order two meals to go, waiting impatiently there while Tim shifts uncomfortably in his seat for the five minutes before he too, gets up and follows Jason out the door once their food is ready, mouthing a 'sorry' at the girl as he walks past.

The girls did however, miss the conversation in the car that followed where Jason told Tim he 'better look after himself or else'.

XXXXXXXX

Penguin's weapons deal does not go as anyone planned.

Jason had helped Tim find out where it was over the weekend, and just in time too. Friday night, they lay on their stomachs on a shipping container overlooking dock 14, waiting for Penguin to show his ugly face.

When the shipment arrives and the heavily stocked crates are piled off, Tim and Jason come swooping down, staff and guns out respectively.

All goes well up until the point where Tim is shot in the stomach. It's a clean wound, simple in and out, nothing getting stuck in between or hitting anything overly important, but Tim loses a lot of blood before either him or Jason manage to slow the bleeding down.

Tim finds out that night how serious Jason treats gunshot injuries and wonders if should have the same opinions, but after so many, one starts to care less.

After Jason takes him home and stitches him up, there's a good, long lecture about proper recovering and taking better care next time. Then he doesn't let Tim sleep for more than two hours at a time, forces 2 litres of water down his throat and he is very careful not to invade Tim's space.

That is something Dick nor Bruce ever did. Jason makes sure not to gawk at Tim's many scars and is double sure to cover the words on his wrist without seeing them. It's a small gesture Tim makes certain to thank him for later.

Though, Tim does think Jason might actually strap him down when he says he'll need to get up for work the next morning.

"Jason, trust me, I've gone to work more injured than this before."

"I don't care, _Timothy_. You were shot tonight. You are going to sleep and you are going to stay in bed all of tomorrow and tomorrow night and the day after that. At _least_. Do you understand?"

Tim sighs and rolls his eyes but agrees anyway and Jason finally dozes off to sleep. When he wakes up the next morning, Tim leaves a note on the bench saying he'll be home at around 4.

XXXXXXXX

Jason doesn't care that he looks way out of place in this fancy office building. He doesn't care that his boots are still bloody from last night or that the knees of his jeans are ripped not in the stylish way but from excessive wear or that the permanent cigarette smell from his jacket is contaminating the fresh air around him.

"Timothy. Jackson. Drake. Wayne. Oh boy do you have some explaining to do," he bellows and lets go of a terrifying laugh. At the mention of his name, Tim's head sticks out from the doorway of his office and Jason really wants to laugh at the way his eyes bulge out of his skull. Clearly he didn't think Jason would have the balls to march into the Wayne Enterprise building. He thought very wrong.

Tim comes scuttling out of his office, grabs Jason by the _hand_ and ushers Jason into privacy as quickly as he can.

"Jason what are you doing here!" he says in the angriest voice he can manage with a whisper.

"You were _shot_ last night, Tim!" Jason retorts in the exact same voice. "Shot! Why would you in your right mind think that coming to work would be a good idea?"

Tim's jaw clenches and he looks ready to murder. "I don't know if you've realised, Jason, but I'm actually a _very_ busy person who cannot take time off for minor injuries-"

Jason scoffs at him in disbelief. "_Minor injury!_ You can't be serious right now. There is literally a hole in your stomach from where a bullet went through! An inch to the right and you'd be dead!"

"Well I'm not dead. As a matter of fact I'm fine. Thank you for your concern, really Jason, but _I am fine_."

Jason contemplates him for a moment. "It's not that I don't believe you, Tim, but I don't. You need to be resting."

"I can rest in my office."

"You need to be resting lying down."

A faint smirk grows on Tim's face and he drops to the ground and lays down in the middle of his office floor, grinning victoriously up at Jason, who huffs and curses. "I'm done with you. We're going." And with that, he grabs Tim by the ankles and drags him all the out across the floor to the elevator, past very confused office workers, watching in shock as a strange, scary man drags their boss, arms crossed over his chest, along the carpet and defiantly refusing to look at anything other than the ceiling.

Jason then drags him into the elevator and across the lobby floor where they receive even more dubious stares and there are several unmistakable camera flashes. Great. This will be all over the media by evening.

XXXXXXXX

Steph's plane arrives that afternoon and she can't believe her eyes as she reads the newspaper during the cab ride home.

'WAYNE HEIR DRAGGED ACROSS LOBBY FLOOR BY HANDSOME STRANGER'

The picture of Jason's angry face and Tim's rather bored looking expression nearly make her wet herself laughing. She is very excited to hear the story behind this tonight.

XXXXXXXX

"Okay, I'm starting to get the impression that I should never mess with you, Jay," Steph says around a mouthful on Jason's homemade lasagne.

She is sitting on the end of Tim's bed next to Jason, because when they got home, Jason really_ did_ tie Tim down to his bed, bound by one ankle and one wrist.

"And I'm starting to regret that Penguin didn't finish me off last night,," Tim mutters.

Jason laughs and a genuine smile spread across his face. "You know you're insane? Maybe if you just took care of yourself _once_, you wouldn't be regretting anything."

Tim rolls his eyes. "Right. Like your dumb arse can talk. I saw the way you were a half second from jumping in front of the bullet yourself-"

Tim looks like he wants to keep talking but Jason's open-mouthed gape and Steph's wide-eyed stare are enough to make him stop. He doesn't even register that Jason has said his words until he catches Jason rubbing at his own wrist that he realises what is going on.

"Oh thank God, finally!" Steph laughs after an intense minute. She has the biggest smile she can remember smiling on her face. "A whole goddamn year of hard work is finally paying off. Well, as much as this is my favourite moment of my life to date and I'm very happy for the both of you, I'm leaving right now. Have fun but not too much." And she leaves with her dinner and a wink, not looking back.

XXXXXXXX

They stare at the door where she was just a moment ago when a look of absolute terror covers Jason's face. "Oh God, what did I just say? That was a sarcastic comment. Don't tell me you have a nasty sarcastic comment tattooed to your wrist," Jason turns to Tim in a panic to see him _smiling_.

"Yeah, actually I do. But after the sentence I just said, yours can't be much better."

"Can I see?" Jason asks cautiously but Tim just smiles at him brighter.

"Only if you untie me."

Jason uses a knife to cut the ropes and Tim allows him to detangle them from his wrist and remove the bracelets he wears. The words he has hidden for so long, even from himself, stare back at him for the first time in years.

"God, Tim, I am _so_ sorry. I can't believe that's the first thing I ever said to you. All this time I was worried it was something bad because of what you said back, but this is worse than I though."

"What did I say back?" Tim asks because while he vividly remembers Jason, enraged from the Pit, telling him that he wasn't Robin, he has no idea how he responded.

Jason rolls up his sleeve to show Tim his own wrist. "Steph's been trying to set us up all this time. I can't believe she knew and never said anything."

"I made her promise not to tell anyone."

"So did I."

Tim sniggered. Poor, poor, Stephanie. "I guess it's kinda good that she didn't. A year ago, how would you have reacted to finding this out?"

"Probably not very well," Jason admits. "But how did _you_ not know. I mean, I can't image too many people have said that to you?"

Tim's sniggers turn sour. "Jason, by the time you'd said this to me, I'd lost count of the number of people who already had. And to be perfectly honest, I'd forgotten you'd even said it. I didn't keep track. It wasn't something I was overly keen to be reminded of more often than I had to be."

Jason's heart did a somersault in his chest. "Okay, right now, I want you to promise me something. Because I can already see one thing here that needs to change."

Tim narrows his eyes a little and sceptically asks, "What needs to change?"

"You're self esteem. Because you, Timothy Jackson Drake Wayne, are actually pretty great and shouldn't need to doubt yourself. So I'm going to make it my personal goal to make sure you feel loved. Because, quiet evidently, I kinda like you. A lot, apparently."

Tim smiles up at his newly discovered Soulmate and finds that he couldn't be happier with his fated partner. "Thank you, Jay. And I _must_ be insane for saying this, quite clearly, but I think you're pretty great, too."

**Author's Note:**

> Hey so this is the first ever fic I've published so I hope you all enjoyed it and let me know what you think :) XX
> 
> UPDATE: I'm also thinking of rewriting this entirely? Just to add to it a bit, make it a little more in-depth with some actual third-dimension writing that's not surface level. And now that I've read a few more comics and got a better grasp of these guys, a rewrite would do this fic a hella lot of good. But I do have another few WIPs so we'll have see.
> 
> Anyway, 'till next time :·)


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